Hugh Bowman had been waiting impatiently for a couple of months – waiting for 5pm on Saturday to tick around, waiting for Winx's date with destiny as she chased her second Cox Plate win.

Chris Waller had been planning for it for 12 months, ever since the mighty mare had taken out her first Cox Plate. But, when it came right down to it, the pressure of getting a year's worth of planning exactly right for just two minutes of supreme effort fell to to Bowman, an astute horseman with a natural feel for the supremely talented mare he was riding.

A track gallop at Moonee Valley a week before the big day had left him high on confidence. 

And then there are eight races on the card before the Cox Plate. Bowman had six bookings, which meant six chances to ride the track and see how conditions were playing before the big one.

Not that those rides were mere build-ups. The unforgiving nature of racing means each event is its own contest, with the jockey under as much intense scrutiny from punters, and stewards, in his early rides as he was for his masterpiece on Winx. But it did give him an opportunity to see where the trouble spots might lay, to make sure nothing cruelled the months and months of preparation that had gone into Winx's defence of her crown.

The overlords of social media were quick to critique his rides, particularly aboard Lady Le Fay and Sezanne, two races in which Bowman made use of such vastly different parts of the Moonee Valley straight that he was almost in different postcodes. Different races, different tactics, different gates – all contribute to how a race maps out. But each ride also allows an astute jockey to build a profile of how the track is playing on a given day, where is the best place to position his horse to give it the best chance of winning. After six rides on the day, Bowman had put in the last pieces of the jigsaw. Finally, he knew now exactly what he had to do with Winx.

"I was more relaxed going into the race than I have been in any of her other starts this spring," he said after she won. "When the track started to play the way it did, it went from straight-forward, to planning to make sure I got her to the right place."

Race 1

Bowman started the day by leading from a wide gate on Luiza, which knocked up and faded late. It was his first experience of the wind, which was strong and cold. It was coming from side-on from the 800-metre mark before they turned into it from the 600m to the post.

"It was testing, it was tough," Bowman said on Sunday. "It was definitely the wind more than the track that made it hard. The ground on the inside was definitely used but it wasn't softer. The reason that horses on the inside stopped was that they were just taking on the wind all the way.

"It was across them from the 800m and a headwind from 600m. You need to be on the outside to get cover from it."

What that meant was that barrier three for Winx would be no advantage in the Cox Plate. It would actually be a challenge to be overcome.

Races 2 and 3

Bowman didn't figure on Felines in the sprint, the City Jeep Handicap, and he came through the pack for a fourth on Rosa Carolina in the Crockett Stakes. The winners of those two races were O'Malley and Sweet Sherry respectively, both of which swooped down the outside. More food for thought for Bowman.

Race 5

Bowman's ride aboard Lady Le Fay had some on social media questioning what was going through the master jockey's head. Was his mind already on race 9. Lady Le Fay, which was Winx's work buddy seven days earlier, drew inside and Bowman stuck to the fence, hugging it in the straight as she ran sixth.

He was fined $400 by stewards for not riding her out to the line, but they saw no need whatever to ask him why he did not get off the fence. Some punters on social media wanted to know why he did not move to the centre of the track, which they thought was better, and that criticism filtered back to Bowman.

"I got some criticism for the ride on Lady Le Fay but it's not the track's fault," he said after Winx's victory. "I'm going to stick up for this track. It is the wind coming across you from the 1000m that makes it impossible for any horse on the inside. It just played to horses coming around them."

Race 6

From the outside draw (gate 15) on Sezanne, Bowman was trapped outside and charged late down the outside as Nurse Kitchen got the breaks through the field to beat him narrowly into second place. That would have made him think. 

Race 8

Another second for Bowman followed in the Moonee Valley Cup, where Who Shot Thebarman, from gate 9, wobbled around the home turn in the wind and was gunned down by stablemate Grand Marshal.

Race 9

Bowman came to Winx with no winners for the afternoon but undoubtedly with a clear picture of what he had to do to make sure that was not the case after the Cox Plate.

He produced a ride that was equal to the talent of the beast he was on. Winx jumped from gate three and Bowman never let her get to the inside. In fact, he was three-wide the trip. He made sure he had cover from the wind down the back, reasoning that it would push them along.

Then, crucially, at the 900m, when the crosswind was about to hit Winx, he gave her a squeeze to get alongside Hartnell and get a block from the wind.

At the 600m, the two champions strode out together. By 500m, she was was off and gone.

"It is pretty self explanatory. I wasn't surprised she did it," Bowman said. "Riding her is an honour, what more can I say, I don't know what more I can say."

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